A/N: I know, I'm horribly lazy with updating, but in all honesty I did have this chapter written since the last chapter I posted, but I was stuck on the fence for weeks between what Stefan's reaction would be. I hope this one works for you guys.

Chapter Ten: Disbelief

Damon's eyes widened as he licked Elena's blood from his lips. He pulled the bed sheet around her quickly, but she didn't seem to care.

"Stefan," she whispered, her voice scared. He could see tears brimming in her soft, brown eyes.

"No, Elena," Stefan held a hand out in front of him, closing his eyes for what she figured was because he was trying to erase the scene he'd just witnessed; the scene involving his brother coming inside of his girlfriend...well, ex-girlfriend by now...while her blood spilled from the fang puncture wounds in her neck. "You don't need to explain. You were upset, and I left, and naturally my brother here was more than happy to 'ease your pain.'" He stated, his fingers even curling to create air quotes around his statement.

She sighed, "No, Stefan...that's not it." Damon slunk deeper into the bed sheets. All would be well as long as he didn't have to speak up, because this might end badly if he did.

"Stefan," Elena started again, her hand coming up to rub at her forehead while her eyes slammed shut. "I'm sorry, I–"

"Elena," Stefan pushed, "It's fine. I slept with Katherine, you slept with Damon," he almost growled. "It's understandable. You were angry, I was sneaky and a liar, and whether or not you want to forgive me, I forgive you for your lack of judgment in such a situation as the one we're in right now."

Elena's eyebrows furrowed tightly and she sat up straight, confidently. "Stefan...that's not what this is. I–" She looked to Damon. "I love Damon. And this wasn't the first time, Stefan."

"It was the third actually," Damon grinned smugly, his eyebrows wiggling.

Elena silently scolded him with her eyes. And he dragged an invisible key along his lips and threw it behind him.

"Excuse me?" Stefan's voice rose.

"You heard me, Stefan," Elena almost whispered. "I'm just as bad as you, okay? And don't think I haven't been beating myself up about this, alright? I have since the second it happened," she stated, looking down to the hands in her lap atop the sheet.

"When?" he asked.

"What?" She was confused.

"When was the first time?" Stefan repeated his question more directly this time

"A few days ago..." she mumbled. "The day when you came into the shower with me...when I was crying and told you I missed you," she cringed at herself, "Our first time was the night before," she sighed, relived to have been able to get rid of the secret she'd been holding inside of herself.

Stefan nodded his head which had been angled to the floor almost since the beginning of their conversation. He looked up. Elena didn't see tears in his eyes. She didn't see pain. She almost saw relief?

"Stefan?" she asked, with no real question behind it.

"I forgive you, Elena," he sighed. "I know you might think it to be strange, but I understand. I understand the feeling of there being someone else...someone else that you just can't seem to get out of your head; someone that holds your heart." He looked to Damon. "Damon loves you, Elena. He has for a long time, and I can sense it. I can sense how you feel about him even before you said it out loud, Elena. I'm just sorry how this all came about. I'm sorry I wasn't honest with you from the beginning." He shrugged. "But I guess, it's all okay now. You know. I know. Damon knows. And Katherine knows. And everybody can have what they want, and it's okay."

Elena felt weird, almost out of place. Here she was, sitting naked in Damon's bed, save a t-shirt...Damon's t-shirt, after Stefan, her now ex-boyfriend having just walked in on her having sex with his brother. Who was this Elena and how did she come to be here?

"I guess I'll leave you two alone now," Stefan sighed. He turned to Damon, "Treat her right, brother...even though I know you will," before turning and leaving the room.

Once he was down the hall, Elena turned to Damon. "That was so weird," she stated, her eyebrows almost in a permanent furrow of confusion.

"Oh, well," Damon sighed, tugging her body to lie next to his. "He's right. We can all have whatever we want now. The secrets out and everyone can be happy." He smiled.

"Damon," she huffed slightly, "That's not the point. The point here is that your brother just saw us having sex and I revealed to him I'd cheated on him, after quite angrily yelling at him for cheating on me less than 24 hours ago, and he just said that everything's fine? I don't get it."

"Elena," Damon started, "don't you see? He knows he was wrong, I mean, I'd told him multiple times that he had to tell you about his affair with Katherine. It was wrong and it was stupid and he should have known better, but he still kept everything a secret and then it all blew up in his face when he told you and realized, hey, look at that, you weren't so happy about it."

She nodded and he continued.

"All he really wants is for you to be happy, you know? And I guess he figures if he's happy with Katherine, and you're happy with me, then maybe it's time to just forgive, forget and move on with the right person," he smiled as he rested his head against hers. "And I say go with it, before he changes his mind or something."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she smiled.

"You do realize you said you loved me for the first time, for real, right?"

She nodded her head and couldn't stop her grin from widening. "Well, it's true," she whispered. "I do."

"You do what?" he smirked.

She curled her body so she rested on her side, her hand reaching out to caress his cheek. "Damon Salvatore, I love you."

"And I love you," he whispered back, his head moving to place a soft, sweet kiss against her lips. She returned it gratefully and smiled against his lips.

"I'm happy," she stated.

His eyebrow rose, "I'm glad?" His words came out in a question.

"I just...wanted you to know...since I don't think I actually said that out loud yet either." She kissed his neck softly as she lay her head against his shoulder, her arm coming to wrap around his waist, the other reaching to grasp at his hand that rested on her hip. She laced her fingers in his and snuggled close as he tugged the bed covers around their bodies with their joined hands.

Her eyes closed, as did his and they were silent for a moment before,

"Damon?" she questioned, her head leaving his shoulder.

"Hm?" he mumbled back.

"Did you tell me that you told Stefan to tell me about his affair?"

Damon nodded, his eyes remaining closed, his breathing steady.

She abruptly sat up, her hand grabbing his face and pulling it to face her new position. His eyes popped open at her harsh action.

"What?" he growled at her.

"You knew he was sleeping with Katherine the whole time and never said anything?"

He couldn't hide the harsh lump he swallowed as he slammed his eyes shut during a cringe.

"Elena–" he tried but she cut him off.

"This is fucking ridiculous," she stated, her voice monotone and flat. "How could you?" she questioned harshly. "How could you keep some–something so freaking important about my relationship from me when you knew how much it would hurt me to find out? How the fuck did you think that was okay?"

Her harshness and sudden swearing caught him off guard. He didn't even realize he'd said that earlier...or that he'd just agreed to saying it without even thinking about it.

"Elena, I didn't want to hurt you." She stood from the bed, cringing slightly at the soreness in her neck. Now she regretted those puncture wounds. "I didn't feel like I was the one that should have told you, I mean, I knew it would break your heart and I couldn't do that to you. Stefan was being stupid and he should have admitted it to you, not me."

"Is that what you think, Damon?" she harshly pulled his sweatpants off the floor and onto her body, tightening the drawstring so they rested comfortably on her hips.

"Yes," he stated, his voice sure. "That's what I think."

"Well, I don't agree with that. I think that you were my friend...we were sleeping together. If anything, I should have known that my boyfriend, your brother was fucking another woman behind my back. You should have had the balls to tell me, since he obviously didn't. But don't worry, Damon. It's fine. We don't have to talk about the affair anymore. In fact, we don't need to talk at all."

She walked towards his bathroom, picked up her clothes from the night before off the floor, grabbed her cell phone that she'd realized had somehow made its way onto the bathroom sink counter and angrily walked towards his bedroom door.

"Elena, please!" He was now standing blocking the exit. "Don't do this, Elena. I love you and I really...I really didn't think that I should have been the one–"

"Forget it, Damon. I don't give a shit about what you think," she forced out, throwing his earlier harsh words back at him.

She stormed out of the boarding house and out to her car. He didn't stop her and she didn't stop to wipe away the tears either that she found pouring onto her cheeks while she started up her car and drove away from the Salvatore house.